New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the Centre to explain why married men and women cannot be considered for Judge Advocate General (JAG) department, the legal arm of the army, and remarked the policy barring married individuals from applying “does not make any sense”.
The high court said there was no correlation between marriage and training of candidates selected for Short Service Commission in the Indian Army for entry into JAG department and asked the Centre to file an affidavit explaining the policy.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing a plea challenging the restriction on married individuals from being considered for JAG department.
“What is the rationale of marriage and eligibility? Put it on an affidavit that a person trained for arms cannot be married. Put the policy on record because marriage and training can have no correlation,” Justice Prasad said.
The post of Judge Advocate General is held by a Major General who is the legal and judicial chief of the Army. The JAG is assisted by a separate JAG branch which consists of legally qualified Army officials.
When Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, representing the Centre, asserted that marriage and training has a correlation as the selected candidates have to undergo rigorous training, the bench asked him to file an affidavit explaining the position.
“It does not make any sense. The question is if a person is married and goes for arms training, how is that going to affect his training?” the court said.
The court said such a policy needed to be tested.
The bench also asked the government to inform whether its policy related to entry of married and unmarried individuals is uniform or it differs from course to course.
“You might not have your spouse with you at that time but how does your marriage comes in the way?” the court wondered.
The ASG also clarified that the bar on marriage is only for entry into the 11 month-long training period.
The court granted the government four weeks to file an additional affidavit regarding the policy of entry into the Indian Army and listed the matter for further hearing on March 22, 2023.
The PIL was filed by advocate Kush Kalra terming as “institutionalised discrimination” the restriction on married individuals for being considered for JAG.
Advocate Charu Wali Khanna, appearing for the petitioner, said as per the advertisement, the eligible age to apply for JAG is 21 to 27 years and 50 per cent of women in India get married before the age of 21 years. Since they also gave aspirations why should they be penalised for their parents’ act of marrying them off at an early age.
The Centre, in its earlier affidavit filed in March 2019, had said the right to marry cannot be a right to life under the Constitution and there was no discrimination on the basis of the marital status of the candidates.
